A Flex package is a user interface application component implemented with the Adobe Flex® technology. The flex technology, used to build user interfaces, includes code and metadata about the components and assets. The user interfaces built by the flex technology are different from the general user interfaces since they typically provide a richer user experience. The user interface applications are built as a package and they are shipped to the customer. Once the package is shipped to the customer, they have to be regularly updated. To update the existing package, a new package along with the latest updates has to be re-complied at run time. Further, if the packages are developed on multiple server platforms, the updates of the package are deployed on the corresponding server platforms.
Currently available systems provide a standard deployment mechanism for Flex components through a folder path accessible from the web root folder or packaged as .WAR files deployed on a server container. This system is not flexible enough to support distributed deployment. The assembly of Flex components from different server platforms and running them in flash player runtime requires the availability of cross-domain policy files on the server root, which stipulate the access policy for the Flex components deployed in the server. There is a need for deploying the Flex components in a transparent way.